Half of the Netherlands lies below sea level and windmills are the reason it is dry. This tour goes out to see them working: a village on the Zaan where mills still saw timber and grind pigment, a polder drained four hundred years ago, a cheese farm and a clog maker, then back into Amsterdam for the centre of the city.
The tour covers:
Please note that the tour order and the time spent at each venue may vary.
Meeting by the ship
Meeting by the ship. The start time of the tour is given approximately and will be adjusted depending on your ship arrival time. The exact meeting time will be specified on your confirmation letter.
Drive to the cheese farm
A scenic drive out of the city into the polder country
Cheese farm
A visit to a working farm for a cheese-making demonstration and a tasting, with time in the farm shop. Dutch cheese has been traded by weight at public markets since the Middle Ages, and the round gouda you taste here is made much as it was then.
Beemster polder
A drive through the Beemster, a lake pumped dry by windmills between 1608 and 1612 and laid out on a grid of fields, roads and canals that follows the classical planning ideas of the day. It survives almost unchanged and UNESCO listed it in 1999.
Zaanse Schans
A walk through Zaanse Schans, the village of green timber houses and working windmills on the river Zaan. The Zaan district was the first industrial region in Europe, with more than a thousand mills at its height, sawing timber for the shipyards and grinding pigment, mustard and oil. The mills here were moved to the site from the 1960s to save them, and several still work: you go inside one to see the millstones and the sails turning.
Clog workshop
A clog maker's demonstration. A pair of wooden shoes is cut from a single block of poplar or willow in a few minutes, and farmers still wear them because they keep the wet out.
Free time
Time for coffee, a Dutch pancake or souvenirs in the village
Drive back to Amsterdam
The return drive into the city
Amsterdam sightseeing
A panoramic tour of the centre with a short walk: Dam Square, where the dam that gave the city its name was thrown across the Amstel around 1270. The Royal Palace on its west side was built between 1648 and 1665 as the town hall of a republic grown rich on trade, and its scale was meant to say so; the Nieuwe Kerk beside it is where Dutch monarchs are still crowned. St Nicholas Basilica opposite the Central Station, finished in 1887 and named for the patron saint of sailors and of the city. Its neo-baroque front, with two towers and a rose window, is the first thing most arrivals used to see.
Return to the ship
The transfer back to the cruise port
The meeting point is located in the cruise terminal building. Please, make sure to read disembarkation instructions sent through email with other documentation.
| People | Price per person |
|---|---|
| 1 | €1,266 |
| 2 | €636 |
| 3 | €456 |
| 4 | €344 |
| 5 | €277 |
| 6 | €242 |
| 7 | €224 |
| 8 | €197 |
| People | Price per person |
|---|---|
| 9 | €176 |
| 10 | €159 |
| 11 | €145 |
| 12 | €133 |
| 13 | €124 |
| 14 | €115 |
| 15 | €111 |
| 16 | €104 |
US and EU citizens need no visa or tour ticket to come ashore in Amsterdam.
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